pest house

In the past 36 hours I have given 12 baths, mopped 3 floors, steam cleaned 2 rooms, and washed 8 loads of laundry.

Hopefully, whatever nasty bug the 3 youngest were brought down by is gone and we can resume our normal scheldule.

On the plus side, I have had some time to reread some of my favorite mysteries, the Grace and Favor series by Jill Churchill. Set in the early years of the Depression in rural New York, two ex-socialites must live in an old mansion for 10 years before they can inherit. While they have to solve murders, it is the descriptive background of what life was like at that time that is so interesting.

I interviewed my grandmother and her brothers and sisters a few years ago about when she was a girl during the 1930's. Luckily her father had a steady job with the railroad, but there were no extras for dolls and such. She recalls being instructed by her grandmother that if someone knocked on the back door looking for a handout or work to always scrounge something up to give them to eat. My grandfather grew up in a poor family in New York and got a job every summer to earn enough money to buy himself a bicycle, but his mother always needed the money for his school clothes. I don't think he ever got that bike, but he worked hard in school and eventually went to college.

I pray that if I was ever in such a situation, I would rise to the occasion with hidden talents and virtues emerging victorious over despair and misery.